1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to the field of information storage, and more particularly to aligned information areas of an optical storage medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
As information handling systems have become more common and have improved in the speed at which the process information, increasing amounts of information have been generated for storage. Optical media provide a sensible and relatively inexpensive solution for storing large quantities of information on a portable material. Generally, an optical medium stores information by altering the reflective qualities of a data layer material directly with recordable media, or indirectly by the creation of a master for stamped media, with a focused laser and allows retrieval of information by reflection of a focused laser against the altered material to measure the reflected light characteristics. However, the precise characteristics of optical media vary widely to accommodate different storage speeds, densities and functions. Optical media materials have developed from supporting relatively simple CD-R discs that write data only once for each area to more complex materials that support rewritable CD-RW discs with repeated writing of data over the same areas of a medium. Storage densities have increased from less than a gigabyte with infrared laser CD formats to several gigabytes with red laser writable and re-writable DVD formats, and even greater densities with planned blue laser media. Optical drives typically manage writes to different types of optical media by reading and applying information embedded on an optical medium, such as information embedded according to PEP standard of ISO/ANSI. Embedded information is generally stored at the inner portion of an optical medium so that an optical disc drive pickup unit can quickly find the embedded information. For instance, optical disc drives find embedded information using a reference point, such as by its relationship to a “crash stop” position, which is generally the closest possible position of the pickup unit to the center spindle of the optical medium.
One difficulty with the management of different types of optical media is that the embedded information generally must be readable when a medium is inserted into an optical drive. Accurate assessment of the embedded information is generally necessary at start up of the optical medium in an optical drive so that the embedded information is readable before further use of the optical medium. In some instances, embedded information is stored in the information area of an optical medium, for instance, permanently incorporated by stamping of the embedded information in the data layer of blank optical medium during manufacture. Embedding information in this manner helps to protect the embedded information from damage since embedded information written to the data layer is covered by a protective coat layer disposed over the data layer. However, embedding information in the data layer inhibits production flexibility since each optical medium of a given production set generally must have the same embedded information. An alternative manner of embedding information is to laser cut or ink mark a finalized optical medium's outer protective coat with the embedded information. This manner of embedding information generally provides greater flexibility since each optical medium may be individually printed upon with relative ease. However, print on the outer protective coat of an optical medium is more susceptible to damage and generally obscures due to the necessary size of the marks any information stored beneath, such as stamped information.